MEDB CHARLETON grew up in Sligo in the North West of Ireland. She is a recent graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University of Wellington and moves between Ireland and her adoptive New Zealand.


       Materialism

       Broken bottles by the railway tracks
       by the lemon tree, dark leaves, yellow fruit.

       Wind throws darts across the harbour –
       ink blue, horse white, grey as tin roofs.

       Superabundant city, rustling up receipts
       at the depot where memory serves

       attendees of desks, the high-rise,
       retinues who saunter, sob, stash bravery

       on streets decorated with trees, roosts of starlings
       beseeching each fell swoop of light.

       Half hour for a dream, impromptu lesson
       on the many faces of worship,

       turn of events by a window chain,
       manikins in citrus smocks,

       where someone has had enough.
       In the outskirts, night-scented

       rhododendrons make it to the inner room,
       outlasting sleep after sleep.